Short-Wave Infrared Super-Continuum Lasers for Natural Gas Leak Detection, Exploration, and Other Active Remote Sensing Applications

1. A measurement system comprising: a light source configured to generate an output optical beam, comprising: one or more semiconductor sources configured to generate an input beam; one or more optical amplifiers configured to receive at least a portion of the input beam and to deliver an intermediate beam to an output end of the one or more optical amplifiers; one or more optical fibers configured to receive at least a portion of the intermediate beam and to deliver at least the portion of the intermediate beam to a distal end of the one or more optical fibers to form a first optical beam; a nonlinear element configured to receive at least a portion of the first optical beam and to broaden a spectrum associated with the at least a portion of the first optical beam to at least 10 nm through a nonlinear effect in the nonlinear element to form the output optical beam with an output beam broadened spectrum; and wherein at least a portion of the output beam broadened spectrum comprises a near-infrared wavelength between approximately 700 nanometers and approximately 2500 nanometers, and wherein at least a portion of the one or more fibers is a fused silica fiber with a core diameter less than approximately 400 microns; a measurement apparatus configured to receive a received portion of the output optical beam and to deliver a delivered portion of the output optical beam to a sample, wherein the delivered portion of the output optical beam is configured to generate a spectroscopy output beam from the sample; and a receiver configured to receive at least a portion of the spectroscopy output beam having a bandwidth of at least 10 nanometers and to process the at least a portion of the spectroscopy output beam to generate an output signal; wherein the light source and the receiver are remote from the sample, and wherein the sample comprises plastics or food industry goods.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement apparatus is a stand-off detection apparatus, and the spectroscopy output beam is based at least in part on diffuse reflection from the sample.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement system is used for on-line process control.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the output signal corresponds to overtone or combinational bands associate with a chemical composition of the sample.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the output signal is based on a chemical composition of the sample.